I’ll begin with a disclosure…I work with adolescents in residential treatment. That means these teens have multiple problems stacked up in a kind of multi-layered, multi-dimensional, and multi-axial diagnostic “cake.” This suggests the adolescents have had long-standing behavioral, emotional and mental troubles that they have not been able to deal with successfully enough to cope and carry out life in a generally healthful way. It may also suggest that they may not have been able to utilize their past placements or treatment centers enough so that they could stay out of a more restrictive treatment environment. The combination of the two—unresolved problems and less effective past placement or treatment results—means that these kids are “stuck” in their issues. They are stuck in their behaviors that are unproductive, but thereby they are also wedged in their anger, hurt, confusion, stubbornness, and other kinds of traumatizing past or self-traumatizing present life experiences. How do you help adolescents who are “stuck”? First, name the stuck place: